Peter J. Wood

TL;DR: Measurements of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) have been used to assess early embryo loss in women and found that 92.7% of conceptuses will be lost prior to 12 weeks, without the knowledge of the mother.

TL;DR: It is shown that low birth weight is associated with raised fasting plasma cortisol concentrations, and the association between cortisol and blood pressure was most marked in subjects who were obese.

TL;DR: Men with low birth weight and/or the metabolic syndrome have increased activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which may be an important mechanism underpinning the effects of events in early life on later cardiovascular disease.

TL;DR: The finding of attenuated placental 11beta-HSD2 activity in IUGR suggests that glucocorticoids may, in part, contribute to impaired fetal growth and that this is closely controlled in normal gestation through placental 12beta- HSD2 expression.

TL;DR: It is shown that the human fetal adrenal cortex synthesized cortisol much earlier than previously documented, an effect associated with transient expression of the orphan nuclear receptor nerve growth factor IB-like and its regulatory target, the steroidogenic enzyme type 2 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD3B2).